DAUPHIN ISLAND, Alabama - Fishermen in boats large and small leaving out of Dauphin Island's Billy Goat Hole were greeted by stout east-southeast winds, building seas and string westerly currents on opening day of the 2014 federal red snapper season in the Gulf of Mexico.

Despite those adverse conditions, fishermen who made it to their spots - or the closest spot they could find without risking taking any more beating by the roiling seas - returned with limits of healthy fish and reported the action was fast and furious.

Besides the wind and seas, fishermen said the strong current made it very difficult to stay over most bottom spots, so they had to make repeated attempts to stay over the structure long enough to get a bait down to the fish.

Paul Grant and his crew of son Logan Grant and friends David Snyder and Daniel Smith, all of Mobile, caught a limit of fish averaging 8 to 9 pounds about 16 miles out, and then tried trolling over another spot in hopes of enticing a king mackerel into hitting.

Instead, the only fish that ate the trolled plug was the biggest red snapper they'd caught all day - a fat 20-pounder, which they had to release because they already had their four-man limit on ice.

Paul Grant said that shows how red snapper have taken over the reef structure off Alabama's coast and why a nine day season is in his words, "a bunch of bull."

"I agree with some of the regulations and understand you have to keep up with the fish, but they have to get it straight with these fish," he said. "They don't really know what's off the Alabama coast and on our reefs. I've been fishing in the Gulf 25 years and I can tell you what's not out there anymore: there are no beeliners, no triggerfish and very few if any grouper. All you can catch out there right now are snapper."

Several fishermen interviewed at the dock throughout the day indicated that if the red snapper season was longer, they likely would not have fished in Saturday's tough weather conditions.

When a comment was made about his crew's run 20 miles offshore on a 24-foot bay boat, David Lindsey said, "Hey, when the season's only nine days long, you have to go. You have to work sometime in those nine days, too. So ..."

Lindsey held up his hands as if to say, "What else are we gonna do?"

Alabama Marine Resources Division personnel were on hand asking if fishermen had registered their catches before landing as required under the state's new Snapper Check data-collection program.

It was probably split down the middle in regard to those who had and hadn't used the online registration form, smartphone app or called by phone.

Several people interviewed had forgotten about the mandatory requirement and one fisherman in particular thought participation in Snapper Check was voluntary.

No tickets were issued to those who had not registered their catches, but MRD personnel made sure several fishermen did so before they were allowed to leave Billy Goat Hole.

Fishermen reported catching their red snapper limits anywhere from the platforms in the Gulf within 3 miles of the end of the Dauphin Island Pier to 25 miles out.

Live croaker and hardtails reportedly took the bigger fish while dead cigar minnows and squid were effective on snapper of all sizes.

The only bycatch species seen was a 50-pound cobia that ate a live croaker fished on a freeline.

Ironically, Cody Hill's crew couldn't snapper fish because their boat's bottom machine broke on the way out. The fish hit as the boat drifted over open water while the crew worked on repairing their electronics.